Physiological Reactivity to Emotional Phrases in Mandarin-English Bilinguals (Tables)

Table 1. Responses by late learners of English (N=17) to How does it feel to say or hear "I love you" vs. "Wo ai ni"? Statements asserting fewer cultural restrictions on English emotional expression If you want to date a girl, you would feel shy to say I love you in Mandarin, but in English it’s ok. It’s easier to say things in English. I love you doesn't mean a lot in English because people say it too much. Statements that ‘Wo ai ni’ is culturally restricted, or is a more serious or consequential expression We don't say I love you in Mandarin In English, there are several levels of I love you but in Mandarin, you would really mean it. [Explained: could say “I love you” to express affection to a friend or as a humorous compliment]. I love you sounds weird in Mandarin [Respondent had trouble expressing why] You don't usually say I love you in Mandarin but it's becoming more open now. In Mandarin it means a lot more. My parents told me that I would say Wo ai ni to one person in my life. You can't say I love you in Mandarin because it is too strong. Table 2. Judging strength of emotional utterances and preference for expression (Pilot study) Percentage of Late Learners of Percentage of Early English (N=17) Learners of English (N=6) Mandarin English Both Mandarin English Both 53% 6% 41% 17% 17% 67% 23% 59% 18% 67% 33% 0% 18% 64% 18% 17% 50% 33% Judged expressions to have stronger emotional resonances in... Language preference for expressing anger Language preference for expressing confidences/intimacies Running head: PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIVITY TO EMOTIONAL PHRASES Table 3. Learning history of participants in skin conductance study Trilingual Mandarin, Statistical (N=24) English (N=40) Difference Gender 75% Female 67% Female n.s. Age 19.6 (18-28)a 19.2 (18-28) n.s. 2.7 (0-8) .4 (0-4)b t(61)=4.0, p < .001 Age of Exposure to English 6.9 (0-15) 8.2 years old n.s. Age at Arrival in the US 12.7 (1-20) 11.3 (0-24) n.s. Length of stay in the U.S. 7.3 (0-19) 7.8 (0-23) n.s. Mandarin Proficiency (1-7 scale)c 5.7 (3-7) 5.8 (3-7) n.s. English Proficiency (1-7 scale) c 5.7 (4-7) 5.7 (4-7) n.s. English verbal SAT 576 584 n.s. English TOEFL 315 275 n.s. Current use of Mandarin with friends(%)d 13% (0-90) 17% (0-95) n.s. Current use of Mandarin at home (%)e 29% (0-100) 74% (0-100) t(1.61)=4.9, p < .001 Which other Chinese language learned Cantonese N=14 Age of Exposure to Mandarin Taiwanese N=7 Not applicable Fujian N=2 Identified other Chinese language as their dominant language 33% (8 out of 24 trilinguals) Tables Notes. aRange provided in parentheses. bFour bilingual participants learned Mandarin after English between age 1 and 4. cAverage of self ratings for proficiency in speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing. dCurrent use at university with friends. eAt home with family. Running head: PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIVITY TO EMOTIONAL PHRASES Table 4 Factor analysis of questionnaire data: variance explained and factor loadings ____Orthogonally rotated factors_____ 1 2 3 Learned Another English Acquisition Mandarin current Chinese Language and ability use and ability ____________ ___________ __________ 29% 26% 14% ____________ ___________ __________ Age of arrival in the U.S. .26 .74 .20 Age of English exposure -.28 .84 -.10 Age of Mandarin exposure .82 -.01 .11 English Proficiency -.02 -.68 -.25 Mandarin Proficiency .00 .42 .63 Other Chinese language is dominant .78 .19 -.19 Current use of Mandarin at home -.84 .16 .08 Current use of Mandarin with friends -.11 .03 .90 Variance explained (%) Factor loadings on variables: Tables notes. Bold values indicate high factor loadings (.6 cutoff). Running head: PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIVITY TO EMOTIONAL PHRASES Table 5. Examples of English and Mandarin stimuli in each emotional phrase category Emotion Rating Category English Mandarin Intensity* † Rating Intensity EndearmentsI love you 5.5 我愛你 6.1 N=8 I miss you 5.2 我想你 5.5 Thank you so much 3.9 謝謝你 3.9 Insults Get lost 4.6 你給我滾 6.3 N=8 You idiot 5.2 你這個大白癡 5.6 Don’t be a jerk 5.7 你這個無賴 4.9 Reprimands Shame on you 4.3 真丟臉 4.9 N=8 Behave yourself 4.6 太過分了 4.9 Stop that 5.1 停了 5.2 Taboo He's an asshole 5.1 他是個王八蛋 5.2 N=8 He screwed your mother 6.0 幹你娘 5.8 She's a bitch 5.6 她是個賤人 5.8 Neutral I have shoes 2.6 我有鞋子 1.3 N=15 I bought toys 2.2 我買了玩具 4.1 The wooden desk 1.8 一張木桌子 1.1 The white envelope 1.2 拿你的外套 1.7 Filler N=45 Table Notes. *Ratings are from the electrodermal monitoring session and are for the indicated item. † Average ratings for categories appear in Figure 1. Traditional Chinese script was shown to raters and used by our panel when evaluating items. Running head: PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIVITY TO EMOTIONAL PHRASES Table 6. Learning history of participants for two groups displayed in Figures 2-3 Balanced Low Mandarin Statistical Bilinguals Proficiency and Difference (N=46) Use (N=17) Gender 75% Female 52% Female n.s. Age 19.2 (18-28)a 19.7 (18-28) n.s. 1.3 (0-8) 1.0 (0-6)b n.s. Age of Exposure to English 7.9 (0-15) 7.3 (0-15) n.s. Age at Arrival in the US 11.8 (0-28) 11.4 (0-21) n.s. Length of stay in the U.S. 7.4 (0-19) 8.0 (0-19) n.s. Mandarin Proficiency (1-7 scale)b 6.3 (4-7) 4.2 (2-6) t(61) = 8.5, p < .001 English Proficiency (1-7 scale)b 5.5 (1-7) 6.0 (3-7) n.s. English verbal SAT 563 635 n.s English TOEFL 301 283 n.s. Current use of Mandarin with friends(%)c 20% (0-95) 3% (0-10) t(61)=3.0, p < .01 Current use of Mandarin at home (%)d 60% (0-100) 47% (0-100) n.s. 32% 52% n.s. (Fisher exact Age of Exposure to Mandarin Trilingual test, p = .07) Other Chinese language is dominant 9% 24% n.s. Tables Notes. aRange provided in parentheses. bAverage of self ratings for proficiency in speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing. cCurrent use at university with friends. dAt home with family. Running head: PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIVITY TO EMOTIONAL PHRASES Figure 1. Emotional intensity ratings (1 to 7 scale) provided by participants during electrodermal monitoring. Ratings did not vary by any learning history factors. All participants (N=63) Emotinal Intensity 6 English 5 Mandarin 4 3 2 Neutral Endearment Insult Reprimand Phrase Category Taboo Running head: PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIVITY TO EMOTIONAL PHRASES Figure 2. SCRs are standard scores for SCR amplitude (mean of 100). The Mandarin dominance factor interacted with emotional category and language. Endearments elicited higher SCRs in those participants with good Mandarin and English ability. Balanced (Good Mandarin and English Ability; N=46) Skin Conductance Response 110 108 English Mandarin 106 104 102 100 98 96 94 Neutral Endearment Insult Reprimand Phrase Category Taboo Running head: PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIVITY TO EMOTIONAL PHRASES Figure 3. A subset of participants reported low Mandarin current use and only medium proficiency ability. Their high response to Mandarin endearments may reflect difficulty in retrieving instances of using the endearments and/or difficulty rating emotional intensity. Skin Conductance Response English Superior to Mandarin (N=17) 110 108 106 English Mandarin 104 102 100 98 96 94 Neutral Endearment Insult Reprimand Phrase Category Taboo